Turn the Tides
by Perdita Durango
Summary: Lele lives in the Adriatic sea, but the ancient connection to the land has never been cut. So she can write down how she got involved in the events on the other side of the world, after an oil drilling ship has been destroyed under suspiciously fishy circumstances. "Siren" and all characters belong to Freeform, and they will appear...
1. Introduction

Hi!

Where I come from, we don't really use names. On land, of course, that will be different. There, I'm known as Lele. So – hi, my name is Lele, and I'm a mermaid. You may know mermaids from fairy-tales or Disney movies, but as any good story, the truth is hidden in plain sight. Reality, however, can be more boring, or more exciting than any story. That will depend on you, whether you are human or you breathe water. We both are creatures of our free will, but we are also restricted by the circumstances we live in. In the, rules are simple – kill or be killed. Humans claim to have something different; they call it culture or civilization. They call themselves rational beings, but they seem overly emotional to me, and they are often driven by the same basic instincts as we are. In comparison to other sea creatures, animals, we maybe seem more evolved, but we don't think that we are in any way special amongst the species. We are just we, and we live and die as everyone else. But we do have a kind of language; we even have words that can be written down. So we are able to think, and we do think.

By the way, I'm sorry, but English is not my first language. My first human language has been Italian, because my home is in the Mediterranean, we live in the northern Adriatic Sea. My family, my whole clan always has had contact to people on the land, as far as we remember, and we are even related to some human people. That side of my family claims mermaid ancestry back to times when there still was a thing called the Roman Empire. What I have read about biology, this would be too far in the past to create a real blood bond – otherwise every human being on planet Earth would be family to every other person being alive now. But I certainly don't see such a bond amongst humans. They like to differentiate themselves from others, be it through religion, or what they call race and nation. Those concepts are very alien to me personally, since I like to think about my family as a unity of individuals who depend on each other, ensuring our survival in the wet wilderness.

Nevertheless, there are some people living in the small town of Grado, on the Adriatic coast east of Venice, who never have forgotten their connection to us, and they have kept their secret very well. My grandmother has been living on land with them, as my mother has done, and I had done it. We always return to the water, but we will come on land every winter, when the coastline is clear of the numerous summer tourist and the bays and lagoons are quiet under the sky.

Living in the ocean has become more and more complicated. Busy harbors caused an increasing amount of ship traffic, with all the pollution and noise that brings. Fishermen have always come out, but today the industrial fishing decimates the aquatic flora. This doesn't matter, since we go on land and buy food, if needed. Money we do have, and I even have a driving license, a passport and a bank account in my name. With the human part of our family, we do own land, which creates an income. So farmers pay us to use our land for farming, and with that money we can buy food if we need to. The concept of money I do understand, sometimes I think better than some humans. I think there's a very primal idea of taking and giving connected with it. We don't use money under water, since we normally can find everything we need. But it's hard to find a computer under the sea.

At least a working one. Otherwise, everything is down there, since people think of the sea as a big dumping site for everything they don't want anymore. I'm a nice mermaid, but sometimes I want to pull the rubbish on land and throw it back into the houses of the humans. But I don't think humans are intelligent enough to understand why I would do that and become angry. Like I said, humans are much too emotional and often lack rational judgement. Sometimes, even Andrea agrees with me.


	2. Timeless

Time has almost no meaning to me. In the water, we always move forward, so basically we live on that small edge between what humans call "present" and "the future". These words sound strange to me, as does "ten years ago". Time has a different meaning to me. I had even none, but then I read in a science school book that speed is defined by the distance covered in a certain measurement of time, and I like speed. I like to drive Andrea's car, though he does not like me driving it. Hi thinks I drive to fast, and that I take too much risk. I'm always scared when he is driving, since he sees things often long after I have noticed the, and he is completely unable to listen out. But you really can here if there's a car around that bend, or a motorcycle or a cyclist. But there is none, so I can overtake the tractor in front of me because I _know _I won't hit anything. Andrea, next to me, however, changes the color of his face to white and presses a "Diomio!" between his clenched teeth. But when he drives, it's always me that has to tell him: "Be careful, there is a deer behind this bushes heading to the road!"

But when I notice the animal and slam the brakes, then comes another "Diomio"! I can't stop the car, get out and hunt down whatever was hiding in the shrubbery just to show him that I had a reason. Not every time.

I had been out of the water for two days, and it was the weekend. Andrea is a biologist at an institute situated at Trieste a town not far away, his wife Chiara was sitting next to me, and he was in the back next to their eight year old daughter, Maria. They were not in on the secret, so I tried to move that car as a driver as deaf and blind as a human would do. However, I like to drive, and so he let me behind the wheel. In the water, amazing speeds are possible, even with just a little push in the tail, but it's good to sit still and have the impact of speed. I never said everything the humans did was wrong.

We drove up to the little lake in the mountains. Only a few other people were there, it was fairly warm weather, and there was a small meadow leading up to the lake. I was very reluctant to go into that cold water, but Maria wanted to, and I was a bid afraid that a human child would make fun of me for being too chicken. So I went in, and sure the coldness of the water was not so bad as if I just had entered the sea and my transformation would have begun.

In my human-like form and in freshwater, I had to learn to swim, and of course not just to breathe in water. No gills for the humanoid girl! Come up for breath was as annoying as the different buoyance of fresh water. In the lake, I had to stay at the surface, and I needed more strength to support my weight than in the ocean.

But we passed the day, and in the evening, we got a pizza in a nearby restaurant – "frutti mare" for me, of course. Maria was a bit disgusted of the things on my pizza: whole little calamari as well as parts of bigger ones, some shellfish and sardine filet populated my meal, and I teased her be gently sucking in a longer, olive-oil-and-oregano covered tentacle, chewing it with visual pleasure., while Maria grimaced, until her pasta al sugo came.

I let Andrea drive back to his home, where I was also staying. I had a room in that house, which most of the time was not used, but I kept my land things there – my clothes, my human world papers, my computer and my phone. A phone is very much useless in the ocean, since there's no wifi and electric devices generally don't mix very well with salt water. Maria was in my room, and I was reading to her from "The little Mermaid", a story she knew well, but also enjoyed my strange additions to the story, for example that of Frank, the fat merman who liked to eat and sleep and who did not like to help others with the things that mermaids needed to do. Of course I, his name wasn't really Frank. However, Maria liked it when in the story, he still had to do all the things he was told by the mermaids. Suddenly, Andrea came into my room. "Lele, you have got to see this!"

He gave me his computer, and on the screen there was a video of a collapsing tower somewhere out on the sea. "What is this?", I wanted to know.

"An oil company drilled for oil in the Pacific Ocean near the American cost, and they were short before the first probe extraction, when the drilling pole collapsed and took the ship with them. Several people died!"

I watched the footage, not too disturbed about the fact that people died. They had no business there, even if they thought they had, but they had been out there because of human greed, and whatever they were doing, it was bad for the ocean and everything living in it. So much was clear to me. Maria showed no interest in the boring grown-up thing, and her father asked me: "You think they are some out there?"

"I don't know, but I think there should be." Maria of course didn't pick up what we were talking about. There were many others like me, and there was no reason to believe there would be any ocean without some of us calling it home. There were others in the Mediterranean, and I knew that colonies living south of us have been pushed out to the Ionic Sea by my ancestors, since they needed their deeper waters for themselves.

"I would guess so. I googled the location, and look at that: 'Bristol Cove – Mermaid Capital of the World'!" Maria looked at us. "I like mermaids!" she crowed happily. "Yeah, me too," I reassured her. Most of those I knew, that was.

Her mother called Maria to prepare for bedtime. Mermaid mothers had it easier, since we were not so tied to the changes of day and night. Often it was easier to hunt at night, and the little ones followed the changing patterns of the grown-ups.

"That looks like… how do you call it?"

"Kitsch," Andrea answered. That shop here has worse stuff than any Disney movie, he commented at a photo of a shop owned by a certain Helen. So I added a new word to my vocabulary. But there was also a photo of the owner, and something in her face, in her eyes made me feel strangely familiar, as if I should know her. But she was a random stranger from the other side of the world. Unless…

"It's more a hobby to me, but I do research old knowledge about your kind. And what I have found out so far is that in ancient times, there have been many contacts between us and you. At least starting with the Old Greeks I'm pretty sure." Andrea looked at some other images and articles about Bristol Cove and the area.

"Didn't you tell me that when Europeans went across the Atlantic Ocean, our existence had already become am myth? There is a statue of a mermaid in Copenhagen, and from what I have seen on photos, she just is a human with a fishtail…" I stopped talking when Andrea pulled up two images. They were drawings of two girls' faces. I didn't know how drew them, but I instantly know what they were. I hissed.

Andrea looked up to me. "That's from the Sheriff's office; they're from the 'wanted' board. Drug-related, obviously.

I reached down and hit the back button to go back to the photo of Helen Hawkins. The phone number of her shop was on the website of Bristol Cove's tourist office.


	3. Tasteless

I called that number. Only then I became aware that it must be early Sunday morning on the Pacific Coast of Northern America. The phone rang several times, but then she said: "Hello?"

"Hello. My name is Lele." Andrea was very surprised, but for me there was no other way. I sensed danger. It was more instinct than sense, and my longing for more information which had lead me to dial that number.

"Yes," she said, then Helen Hawkins was silent.

"I… I'm with a marine biologist. We are trying to find out more about… what happened yesterday on the coast off your town." I did not know what to say. My free hand was twitching anxiously.

She didn't answer. I could sense her distress about my question from 1000 miles away. Maybe it was me hearing how her breathing changed.

"Listen, Mrs. Hawkins, I'm sorry… but…" I was looking for words as if I had forgotten all the human language I knew.

"You are one of them."

I almost dropped the phone after her words came through. Her statement was matter-of-factly, not surprised. It almost swiped me off my feet, but before I could say anything, she continued.

"It's bad. We have done something bad."

"I don't understand," I stuttered. I spoke Italian with a strong accent, and I was well aware that my English must sound even stranger. As if she was following my thoughts, she said on the other end:

"It's in your voice. To be honest, two days ago I would have not believed if one of you used a phone, but today I know better."

"Okay." That was all I was able to answer. But then: "What do you mean, you have done something bad."

"They did it. But we helped them. But I… Maybe we have started a war that we can't win. You should hide better as you hid ever before. It will be bad."

"Can you or someone else can get me at the airport. I try to get to… SeaTac as soon as possible. " My twitching other hand has found the internet and looking for flights. A strange excitement has taken possession of me. There clearly was a danger, even when didn't know what it was. Andrea was looking at me with big, surprised eyes. As if I didn't know that people got around in planes. Or maybe something in my appearance had changed. I looked in the mirror at the wall left to me. My human face was that of what they would call a twenty-something, clear, even slightly hard features, a light olive-toned skin, dark hair, deep blue eyes – Andrea called them "royal blue", as if I was a queen – a slender frame, feminine, but I didn't fit in anything under size 38. But then, the Italian girls were often so frail…

"I will come with you. I can't let you go alone, and I know I can't stop you," Andrea told me.

"Yes," I confirmed. "You are weak. But I can protect you."

I think humans need a lot of reassuring. So we booked the tickets, and the next morning, we drove to the nearest airport. However, I didn't sleep a second that night. I paced around, even got back into the water. I would have taken me too long to go South to the rest of my clan, so I just floated in the shallow areas, avoiding fishermen and container ships.

My anxiousness grew even stronger. In the water, I could trust my instincts more. On land, I was always trying to avoid being different, even with Andrea. Body language and touches are an important part of our behavior and communication, but I tried to avoid as much as possible when I was on the dry land. I kept human contact to a minimum, and now that I was away from then, I could feel the situation. They spoke about sabotage; they even used the word "terrorism". They were discussing about who was responsible, the drilling shaft had been cut with a blowtorch which had been found on the ocean floor next to the drilling hole. Only military-grade divers could be able to work in that depth. But I almost immediately know who else would be able to use a blowtorch so deep in the water: Lele.

And there had been a smaller fishing boat on fire. So that had been an attack, an open attack from our side against the human abuse of the oceans, a declaration of war. Then I saw the picture of Helen Hawkins, and I phoned her to hear her voice, and that confirmed it.

But why did I want to be there? Did I want to take part in a fight that was coming? Did I want to be part of a war against the humans: did my upbringing so close to them bury my feral roots, the fact that I was an apex predator, a warrior camouflaged as a hunter, a young alpha animal; did I really grow so sick of the human abuse, the rubbish, the ugly tastes of their rusty and oily chemicals and ill liquids they were constantly pouring into the sea? So much that the water even tasted like the feces from their animals, and algae were overgrowing every other life, fed by the natural and chemical fertilizers they used on the fields; a green, slimy substance covering everything and even making our scaly skin itchy, blocking our gills; the endless stream of plastic, machines and whole cars ending up wherever a bigger river entered the sea.

Did they start to fight back? Did I want to fight back, too? Eco-terrorism, one TV commenter had called it. I call it self-defense.

But was it really my species? There was a possibility that humans did it. At least they had human help, since even I wouldn't know where to get a blowtorch and how to use it to cut a drilling rod. Then there would be an understanding, cooperation between us and the humans. How far would that go? That was the other side: If humans learned how to treat the oceans so that they and we would not be harmed, that would be useful.

I knew the humans had weapons. They were weaker than us, but they had the stronger weapons. They have the ability to wipe us from the oceans, if they want to. We would lose the war, if that's what is going to come. We could fight, but we would lose. I have seen submarine ships; I have seen marine exercises, when they used real ammunition on old ships. The sound of the blasts would carry long distances, and it was impossible to swim so far to escape the noise.

Humans were not only weak and stupid, they also were crazy. At least they were always ready to act crazy. Humans are the biggest predator on earth, first for themselves, but also for every other lifeform on earth.

So, was I going to help to fight in a war or was I going help to stop it? And why would I even want to go there? Couldn't the Pacific mermaids handle their own business?

Not if they ignite a spark which causes a fire that would kill us all.


	4. Flying fish

I didn't imagine that it would be this bad – crammed in a narrow metal tube like sardines in a can, only without the olive oil. There is no room at all, and I was glad that I had an aisle seat and Andrea was in the middle one. I closed my eyes, but the smell of the kerosene never went away, and of course the droning always stayed. Time stood still, and at one point I thought about to kick in one window and just jump out. Under us was the ocean, and at least I wouldn't drown. Then, I tried to concentrate on the little screen in the back of the seat in front. Andrea chose a movie for me; it was "Splash" with Tom Hanks and Daryl Hannah. He seemed to find some fun watching me watching the movie, which I did, since there was nothing else to do. On the other hand, the motion picture story about a mermaid in New York was unintelligible. Daryl Hannah's tail was much too short.

We landed in a big city named Chicago and had to hurry to catch the next plane. At least we hadn't to check in any luggage, neither mermaids nor men needed that much stuff while travelling. Besides, I didn't even own so many clothes to fill a suitcase. Shopping means that I had to be in contact with strangers, shop assistants trying to sell me something that cost a huge amount of money just because it was made by someone named Gucci or Versace. Somewhere in the sea there was a whole shipping container full of dresses, shirts, pants of those brands which fell of a ship coming from China. The container was never lifted, so the clothes in it couldn't be that valuable. That container was the source of the Versace shirt that I was wearing now, and it didn't look like trash at all.

I have been out of the water often enough to withstand the dryness and the itching rash that came with being on land. Still I was relieved when we left the airport in Seattle and I could smell the ocean nearby.

"Isn't 'Sixt' a place where we can rent a car?" I asked, pointing in the direction to the sign.

Andrea nodded; he seemed to be very tired. "Shouldn't we go and find a motel and sleep a bit? Also, I need a shower!" he complained.

But my strange alertness has never left me, I was still eager to get to Bristol cove, so I just walked towards the shop, Andrea in my wake. With the magic of a credit card, they handed us the keys to a car. I took them and we walked to the parking lot. We just got a random car, a Toyota, nothing special. Of course it had GPS, so it was easy to enter the address of Helen Hawkin's Shop and just start driving.

Less than an hour later we arrived at Bristol Cove. Andrea even fell asleep while I was driving, a thing that never had happened before. I parked the car near the curb opposite of the shop and was ready to wake Andrea, when I saw her.

She was smaller than me, but her huge, light blue eyes, her movements gave it away. I automatically let out a hiss. Next to her, a girl with light brown skin was following the alpha into the shop. I wasn't here to confront anyone. I let Andrea sleep and slowly stepped out of the car. The keys I let in the ignition, then I crossed the street.

Carefully and silently I opened the door to the shop and looked inside. The two girls, the mermaid and the human, had their backs to me, but I could see Helen Hawkins behind the counter. She didn't look at me, and they were talking.

"Where's Ben?" Helen asked the dark-eyed girl.

"He is with Xander in the hospital. How about the Sarge?" she answered.

"Oh, he is strong. He was badly hurt and lost a lot of blood, but it was right to bring him to me," Helen said with her eyes on the mermaid.

I took a step towards them.

Helen saw me first. Her face changed with the recognition of what I was, and the small mermaid turned around. I stopped and raised my hands as a gesture of peace. When the small girl saw me, she hissed and launched herself at me. I anticipated that reaction and stabilized my chance, so she crashed into me without that we fell. At the same time, I crossed my hands in front of my collarbone, palms towards her, elbows outwards, raising my head to expose my throat – I hoped that I would still be able to break her neck when she really would bite.

But she didn't, instead she backed off without letting me out of her gaze.

"Hi," I said. "My name is Lele and I'm from the Mediterranean."

The two human women just stared at me, and the mermaid seemed to relax a bit. She was the first to speak to me.

"What do you want?"

"I heard about what happened here. I want... I don't know. You fight."

The small mermaid was still gazing into my eyes. "Yes."

"You sank that ship?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"They were killing us. They wanted to destroy our home."

I could smell the fear of the two humans now. What were they afraid of? I was not hostile, and we were not in the ocean, I wasn't breaching anyone's territory. Unless the cute little alpha had hers stretched out to the land.

"How did you do that?"

"Ben and Maddie help." Her head made the tiniest movement towards the dark-haired girl next to her.

At that moment, the bells from the shop's door chimed.

"Lele, non puoi lasciarmi solo in macchina…" he trailed off, when he got the situation in the shop. He stared at the other mermaid.

"Oh, you are another one," he said.

"A mermaid in Versace!" was the first thing Helen said.


	5. Venceremos

"I'm Ryn," Ryn said.

We sat down in Helen's living room. Sarge, as they called the big, beardy merman, was lying on the couch. He eyed me when I entered behind Ryn, and Helen cooked tea for everyone. Chamomile, that was. I would have liked a coffee, but didn't say anything.

Andrea came after me, and he was still too tired to actively do or say something.

I looked at Ryn, but she wasn't going to do or say anything, so I was free to talk.

"Helen, when I called you, you told me that you did something bad. You destroyed that drilling ship, right?"

"No, we did," Ryn answered in her place. "I cut the metal with the torch, then everything fell down. But one of us was hurt when hook came lose." She looked at Sarge.

"They took a great risk. We wanted to help them," stated Ben, the marine biologist. So, did every mermaid have her own marine biologist?

"First, the military took Ryn's sister. They tortured her…"

I let out a hiss. "The military knows about us?" Until now, I tried to mimic human behavior, even put my knees on top of each other, but now I was a copy of Ryn's tense posture.

"Yes, they know. They want to study Ryn. They want to heal their soldiers."

Now Maddie, the human girl, looked up. "What? How? Where?"

"Nicole is Xander's girlfriend, she is soldier, too. She took Ryn to their place. I did not let them hurt me. I will not go back there.", Ryn said. Obviously, her human friends didn't know this.

"So that is why they released us from jail!" Ben stood up, went over to Ryn, sat next to her and laid his hand on her neck. She didn't do anything to stop him, she even stroked his face with her own hand. There was so much tenderness between them that I didn't understand at all. Andrea was almost shocked. He liked me, and I liked him, but he never would dare to touch me like this, nor would I feel the need to do what Ryn did. The most contact I had with Maria, who would come to me and take my hand or even sit on my lap when I read to her and cuddle, but she was a child.

Maddie joined the two on the couch. Ryn sat between the two humans, all three of them were touching. I had to think about the fact that humans and mermaids must have mated in the past. There was that connection with my ancient ancestors, and Helen could only be two or three generations away from her marine heritage. Lions and tigers could mate, despite the fact they came from two different continents. But why would one want to mate with a human? I have never seen Andrea that way. But then again, I have never seen a male of my own species as a father for my children.

Maybe that had to do that I was the leader of the whole clan. We were living in families in different parts of the Adriatic Sea, only coming together for special occasions or when a family needed help from the others. I was their leader, as my mother had been before me, my grandmother had been and so on. They and I were the only ones to go on land and keep the contact with the land part of our clan. They respected me, and none of the other females would even think of challenging my position, why would they? I didn't order them around, I was more a diplomat keeping the links of our clan intact, in and out the water.

But one day, my daughter would have to take that role. Time had no meaning, and I figured that I could take part in the mating business whenever I wanted. I could chose whoever I wanted and any other female leading a family would give any male of theirs to me, knowing they would get him back since I was just the ever-travelling empress…

The three of them finally broke out of their intimacy. Helen was looking at Andrea, who just stared at them. As was I.

I might have been an empress, but Ryn was the president here. "Ben and Maddie don't worry. Ryn must find way for humans and us living together in peace."

"They won't let you do that," I said.

They all looked at me. "Many people are very nice. But many of them are also stupid. They don't know what they are doing and they don't want to know who they are hurting. Humans do think of themselves first. They don't respect any other species as equal. They don't even respect other humans. They always kill each other. They hurt each other, even if that means just a little advantage for one of them."

Ben was thinking. "What if there is no 'them' and 'us'? It makes no sense! We live on the same planet! We need to tell the world about you, we can learn from each other…"

"People do something they call war. They fight in big groups and with weapons of so much power that they are far beyond of anything any mermaid could do. If they start a war with us, we will lose, and we will die." I warned Ryn.

"I believe there are more people who would want to protect you," Maddie said. "And you can speak for yourselves. You can make your voice heard!"

"Then, if you want peace, why did you sink that boat?", I asked them.

Before they could answer, Ryn asked me: "Why you here?"

"I wish I knew," I told her. "But I feel that I need to be here."

I looked at her. She stood up and made a step towards me. Her stance had become even more tense. I didn't even realize that I was on my feet. Then we lurched at each other's throats and fell on Helens coffee table.

Two alphas in such a small room hadn't been the best idea, I realized as the small figure tried to stay on top of me. But I was stronger as she was, and I was much more experienced. I could beat her into submission, but that was not why I was here. I could end the fight by presenting my throat to her, but I didn't know that would really stop her. She was just defending out of a threatened position: She knew the military was aware of her, she knew the oil company could take vengeance at her colony, and then I came and couldn't even explain why. There I thought that she of all the other creatures would understand me, that for the need to protect my clan, all the families, I wanted to avert the coming war, or at least help to stop the worst before it was too late.

Clearly, Ryn had never fought on land. In the water, the tail was the strongest weapon. On land, we had legs. She didn't know how to use her legs in a fight. So, while her little fists were raining down on my face, she was trying to pin me to the floor by sitting on me. All I had to do was to push my knees in her back, so that she fell towards my face, while I was grabbing her arms, pushing her sideways and then pinning her to the floor on her back. I didn't give her a chance to further attack nor to show any sign of submission, but I told her:

"Would you please stop that? If we fight each other, we will never win. I'm ready to help you, please be so kind and accept my help."

I felt the tension in her body release. I let her go and stood up, taking her hand. She let me pull her up. Then, finally, she leaned forward, and arms in arms, she let her forhead touch mine. Everyone else in the room exhaled audibly. The Sarge had sat up and was watching us with interest. Of course he had to know whom he had to follow from now on.

I looked at him and pointed at Ryn: "It's her. I'm just a tourist."

Andrea explained: "I'm not sure what just happened. But I am sure that she really doesn't know what sarcasm is."

"Yes, I do," I answered him. "I have read about it. It is a strange concept of human communication, when they say something, but really mean the opposite. They say: 'It's funny", but what they mean is: 'That's not funny.' Humans are not the most intelligent creatures on this planet."

"What is planet," Ryn wanted to know.

"The big ball we all live on. The thing we are going to save." I told her.


	6. We will fight

I learned that it hadn't been Ryn's idea. Ben and Maddie were the culprits, and even in their good intentions to help the mermaids, they have worsened the situation. Ryn told me how she had to save Maddie from a bad man, and that she had been attacked by another man the second day she had been out of the water.

Humans had captured and tortured her sister, who had been catched in a fishing net on Xander McLures boat, and that she had come to the land to look for her. This set a chain of invents in motion, and at the end people died. The thing was big, and the military was in on us. They would come, because they wanted us.

After the sinking of the drilling boat, they brought the Sarge on land. Ryn stayed on land, the rest of her pack went back under the lead of Ryn's beta, Katrina. I drove out with Ryn alone, so that we could go in the water and she could introduce me to them. I parked the car, and we walked through the wood to a beach where no humans would see us.

I was eager to get in the water, and as soon as the ocean touched my toes, the familiar tingling went through my whole body. The deeper I walked in the more intense it became, changing into a burn, as I had stepped into fire. My legs gave out, and let my body slide under water. Next to me, Ryn did the same. I heard her muffled screams, when the wave of pain went through her, and then it was me, thrashing around when my bones, muscles and skin changed. I took a lot of water in, first my lungs rejected it, but then my gills formed and I felt how could breathe it, and the pain went away. The water now felt warm to me, and with a strong stroke of my tail, I followed Ryn.

Out in the Ocean, in the twilight of the deeper water, we met the others. I came with Ryn, so there was no hostility. I was greeted by the rest of Ryn's pack. Just one female was ignoring me, and I felt that she was not happy of Ryn being there. Though she was her beta, clearly she wanted to be more. She wanted to lead. Her eyes bore into mine, and I was the one who broke the stare, but then I was swimming a wide berth to get next to her. I reached out and touched her hand. She looked at me, answering with the same gesture. Ryn was watching us constantly.

We stayed in the water as long as we could, but Ryn had promised her human friends, that we would meet them on land. We had taken a whole backpack of shirts and shorts which we hid in the woods, so that we could get dressed and cause less commotion, walking through the town naked.

When we came to the beach, we saw Andrea, Maddie, Ben and Helen standing there. With them was the Sarge, who looked longingly as we beached ourselves. They stood with their backs to the wood, and I was just getting rid of my tail, when I heard something in the woods I hissed a warning, and Andrea was the first to turn around. So he saw the same as I saw: A large group of soldiers coming out of the shrubs, all in camouflage, their weapons ready. I tried to get on my feet as fast as possible, but I stumbled and fell back into the sand.

So I was in the most advanced position, and while some of the soldiers arrested the humans, the Sarge was taken down with an electrical device, as far as I could see. Everything went really fast. Ryn also jumped forward, only to be hit with that electrical weapon, and she shrieked bloodcurdlingly when she went down. Katrina was on her way back into the water, since she came out last and was still in transition, but when she saw that we were all trapped, she tried to counter the attack.

"No!" I screamed at the others, but I had no time for further warnings, as two soldiers came towards me. Behind them, more and more of them entered the beach. They carried guns, harpoons, and sticks with nooses. I saw how the blond female had two of those around her neck while she tried to withstand the attackers.

Before they reached me, I let me fall sideways, out of the line their weapons were pointing. That gave me at least a part of a second to crouch down and leap at one of the soldiers. I hit him with my whole weight, and we fell down in the sand. My hands were already on his gun, and I think I broke his arm by tearing the weapon from him. Next to me, the sand exploded, even before I heard the shots. I darted away from the spot and let myself fall flat on the sand. Next cover was in the woods, I tried to get there, but there already were other soldiers. So I threw the gun away, but stayed on the ground.

Three or four soldiers were immediately above me, grabbing my arms. I tried to shake them of, but was electrocuted. I must have shrieked like Ryn did before, because I heard Andrea shout my name. At that point, I stopped feeling any pain. I yanked my hands free, they had tried to bind my wrists together with a plastic band. The sharp material tore, and I was bleeding. With a scream, I pushed my body up. The three soldiers who tried to subdue me fell down, and I used that little space to make a jump towards the water. I didn't fall, and I heard a voice: "No fire, please, please don't shoot her", but it I felt the kicks in my back, where I was hit by the bullets. I fell down again, this time inches away from the ocean. I couldn't move, I couldn't breathe. A soldier came and used his boots to turn me on my back. I looked down and saw blood in the sand, blood from my body.

I heard Andrea shout: "Go help her, you idiots, she will die! What are you doing?!" He even managed to escape the grip of the soldier behind him, who tried to hold him back. I coughed blood, my breathing was loud and bubbling. The other mermaids were in different states of submission, there was only a little movement amongst them. Maddie was crying, I couldn't see Ben or Helen. I was picked up and laid on a stretcher. Helicopters were coming, and the soldiers were taking us away from the beach.


	7. Dry

They didn't give me any clothes at all. They kept us in different cages, I did not know where the others were. This was extremely uncomfortable. I got nothing to eat, but there was a sink, the spigot was working, so I had some water to drink. There also was a toilet, but that was all. The artificial light white and cold, the walls where white and there was only the white door. I looked around. The thing up in the corner could be a camera, but I wasn't sure. So I sat on the floor, leaned against the wall.

I thought about what I knew so far. Ryn's sister had been captured. They kept her in ocean water, which lead to her being able to escape. Obviously, they didn't want to repeat that mistake. Nevertheless, I had to get out of here. They must have taken us for a reason, they were studying Ryn, and now they had more of us. Whatever their reason was, they had to get in contact with us. Someone, me included, would at one point get a chance to fight.

I wasn't sure what they already knew about us. The sure knew that we were strong, that we were dangerous. They would take even more precautions, which made the situation difficult. They had powerful weapons. They could hurt and kill us. The fact that they had more than one was danger, too. If someone, Ryn, Katrina or me, would be too much trouble for them, they would simply get rid of us first. Best not to be too troublesome, then.

Time had no meaning to me, but still I got bored. There were almost no noises, other than people moving in some other parts of the building, but nothing that was intelligible to me. So I tried to sleep, but I woke up soon.

Eventually, someone came. I heard several humans gathering in front of my door, their heavy boots, the metallic sound of their weapons. They unlocked the door and threw something into my cell. That little thing started to smoke, and soon the whole room was full of. I had to cough violently, my eyes hurt and I couldn't see or smell anything. I felt something pulling on me, something around my neck tore at me violently. Instinctively, I tried to grab it blindly, and my hands hit a metallic pole. I felt the metal string around my neck. I was dragged along the floor, the string pulled closer, I couldn't breathe. I felt how ma hands were tied together with something metallic behind my back

We were out of the cell, and I could see a little bit again. A soldier took of his mask and put his face closely in front of mine.

"We can losen that thing around your neck a bit, so that you can breathe. You do anything I don't like… well, I got no problem with killing you animal, is that clear?"

I did not react, but in fact, I could breathe again. I was dulled up and I was brought into another room, where I had to sit on a kind of metallic table. Several humans in white coats where in there, three soldiers stayed, the others left.

A man in white came to me.

"Do you understand me?"

I did not react.

He had a cloth in his hand and came close with it. I hissed.

At once I couldn't breathe and was pulled of the table. I fell to the ground, and the two other soldiers were on top of me. I did not act in any way, against my instinct telling me to fight and escape.

The guy in white made a sign, and the two soldiers sat me on the table again.

"I'm just going to wipe your face, so we can get rid of the teargas."

I let him do it.

"There. Now, I'm going to examine you. First, we will shackle your feet. You will not move, understood?"

Someone came near with the shackles. When he was close enough, I kicked him away. I didn't use any force, but the frail human still fell on his back. I was on the floor immediately and couldn't breathe. But their reaction was slow. I was faster.

This time, I was shocked with a taser again. But when they tried to shackle my feet again, I kept up struggling. I was tasered several times. Yes, it was bad, but not as bad as growing scales and a tail. I had to win this one.

So I said: "I will talk to you, but no shackles."

He looked down at me in surprise. And he was ordering the guy with the shackles of. I had won this one.

"Can I get up?"

He nodded at one of the soldiers, who pulled me up, so that I was standing on my feet again.

He gestured again, this time towards the table. I sat down.

He and a female assistant began to examine me. I let it happen. The noose was still around my neck, a soldier on its end and two others standing there, tasers ready.

I hissed in disgust. He looked at me warily.

"No worries," I told him. "I don't want to be hurt, but if you hurt me, I will try to hurt you. Understood?"

He looked at me.

"I'm stronger as you. And much faster. Before they have me down, you will be down."

He understood that I had already tested that.

"My name is Dr. Weller, do you have a name?"

"My name is Lele."

"Do you understand what is happening here?" He gestured around.

"You try to learn about us. You know that we are stronger than you, and you want to become as strong as we are."

He looked at me in a strange way. The he asked: "Are you their leader?"

"I want to leave. With the others, also the humans."

"Ah. Well, that is not in my power, but…"

"I know. You are weak, you have no power. Who is your leader? I would like to talk to her."

"Errr… it's more a 'him', actually. But you can't talk to him. The Admiral is very busy."

"So you can't give me anything in return for not killing you?"

His eyes became wide. His assistant had left the room. His soldiers became wary after my last remark. I felt the string round my neck tighten. The noose was on the end of a metal pole, held by a soldier to control me. I just grabbed the pole and rammed the blunt end into his chest. I felt the and at the same time I was jumping from the table and grabbing Dr. Weller by the neck with my one hand, I used the other to get the sling away from my neck. I used Dr. Weller's body as a shield, so that the soldiers couldn't use their weapons.

"Now, we will free the other ones." I told them; and, to the two soldiers: "You go first, we follow."

They hesitated, but Dr. Weller must have given them a hint, because they marched on. When the first one was already through the door, I threw Dr. Weller to the side, jumped the other soldier from behind, grabbed his head and broke his neck. The other one outside realized what was happening and tried to return into the room, but I was already on him and broke his neck, too.

Dr. Weller was on the floor, and he looked at me in horror. I was next to him at once, grabbing his arm and pulling him with me. I took one of the guns of the soldiers, and we entered the corridor.

"Where are the others?" I asked Dr. Weller. He pointed at another door. I pushed him so that we entered the room.

It was empty, but there were two big tanks. I recognized four of the mermaids, all besides Ryn and Katrina. When they saw me entering, the commotion started in the tanks. At the same time, an alarm rang. I heard the steps of boots throughout the building. I had to act quickly, so I let Dr. Weller be, jumped on top of one of the tanks and used the handle of the gun to smash the glass.

The water exploded out of the box, and the two mermaids, Viv and Levy, with them. I could not jump down, or I would have come in contact with the water, which would hinder me a lot. So I jumped on top of the other tank, repeated the action and let the other two out. Now, soldiers tried to enter the room, but the door did not open due to the water pushing it shut. While the four were in transition, I was pointing the gun at the door. I pulled the trigger – nothing happened. I checked the weapon – something was wrong. There, "lock", I pushed the little thing the other way. I tried again, this time the weapon fired, the bullets hit the door and whoever was on the other side.

The water was flowing away, and I was ready to leave the room and fight our way out of that trap, when I heard shots fired from the outside. I jumped to the floor, ignored the burning of the salty wetness on the soled of my feet and tried to peek out of the door.

In the corridor, I could see Ryn, Katrina, Maddie, Ben and Helen. With them was a dark haired, beautiful human girl who had fired her weapon. Dead soldiers were lying on the floor. I immediately sprinted towards the girl and throw myself against her body, before she had a chance to use her gun.

It was Ryn who shouted: "Stop!"

I looked up to Ryn. "She's a soldier."

"She came and freed us. Her name is Nicole. I trust her," answered Ryn.

I looked to the floor and let her go. She looked relieved, but didn't take my hand as I offered to help her.

"I'm sorry!" I told her, but she was still too shocked to answer.

I looked around. I freed Viv, Cami, Levi and the Sarge, Ryn came with the humans and Katrina. That meant Eliza was still missing. We needed to leave as soon as possible, so we had to find her quickly. Andrea gave me a lab coat that I put on. Humans had problems with not wearing clothes, I didn't care. He looked like as he wanted to hug me or something, but I was definitely not in the mood to be touched by any more humans, not even those I liked.

"Ryn, we need to find Eliza, and we have to get out of her as fast as possible," I pleaded to the small mermaid.

Nicole answered. "She is locked in a cell, follow me."

We went into another corridor, keeping to the walls in case of encounters with other soldiers. Nicole went first, I passed Ryn with another loaded gun which I had taken from a dead soldier. This time, I unlocked it properly. The corridor was empty, but we could all hear soldiers moving around in the buildings. Nicole unlocked the cell door with a keycard, but let Ryn open the door. I stayed at the side and pointed my gun in the direction of the corridor Nicole was not covering with hers.

"Mermaids with machine guns," I heard Ben mutter.

"Hey, we didn't start the war. They did, when they started drilling for oil." Maddie looked at me as if she was not exactly sure that I told the truth.

Ryn got the scared Eliza out of her cell. Back in her pack, she was ready to fight back. And this is what we did. My white lab coat turned red, before we could leave the building.


	8. Turning

We won. After we freed Eliza, we didn't encounter any resistance at all. The surviving soldiers must have had left the building. Their leader, Admiral Harrison, was nowhere to be found. From Nicole, we learned that we were in Tacoma, where the military quickly tried to establish a base as a replacement for the compromised fish hatchery that they had burned down to destroy all evidence.

"We will be hunted down again and again," I stated. "Whatever they want, they will see us as a resource, as objects they can use for their own reasons. Like they treat nature as their property, they see us as their… material."

Ryn said nothing, but I could see that her thoughts were similar to mine.

"You will be hunted like animals," Andrea said.

"The military knows about us. We need protection." I continued.

Maddie looked at me. "Bot how?"

"We will show ourselves," I told her.

Katrina hissed. She clearly didn't like the idea. Cami stood next to her.

Ben was also hesitant. "If you come out, you can never go back. You will still be hunted, by people with cameras."

"Better than by soldiers with guns and nets," I was sure.

"We will go home," Ryn decided. "To Bristol Cove."

"Mermaid capital of the world," I sighed.

"Shotgun!", Andrea shouted.

Indeed Nicole organized to big cars. She was driving the one, I would let no one the steering wheel of the others. Humans were too slow with their reflexes, it was too dangerous to let them operate such heavy and powerful machines. So I took Andrea, Katrina, Cami, Viv and the Sarge in my car, Nicole took Ryn, Ben, Maddie, Eliza and Levi.

Then we hit the road.

I remembered the way from when we were driving from the airport, so I didn't wait for Nicole. While driving, it became very quiet in the car. That my people didn't say anything was nothing special, but I felt that Andrea was deep in thoughts. I didn't thing he had really grasped what had happened there, that so many humans had be killed, or it was not important for him. I knew he was very fond of me, I could sense his fascination we my species in general and me in special.

There was something going on between Ryn and her human friends. I wonder if she had sung to them. Sometimes Ben looked at her in a way that was… troubling me. The song was not inherently bad, but it could really hurt humans. It was a strong weapon against them – so strong that I not even mentioned the song to Andrea.

We were driving in light rain, it was becoming dark. The Sarge was watching, but the females were asleep, as I could see in the rear view mirror. Andrea must have noticed that, too, since he was very quiet when he spoke.

"You are sure it's the best thing to do?", he asked.

"I think so," I answered.

"You'll become a Disneyland attraction."

"We _are _an attraction. Haven't you seen Bristol Cove?"

"But you will be real then. People will react differently. Some will even hate you."

"I know. But that is not my problem. We live deep enough in the water that there will no masses going down there to watch us. I can't imagine someone being so keen about the entertainment of the humans to make a show for them. I certainly won't do anything like that, and everyone must know what she does."

"Or he," Andrea added.

"Nobody cares about males. Humanity is a patriarchy. Look where that lead you!"

"You do fight each other. You and Ryn did."

"Yes. But I still like her. I wasn't challenging her position, I wouldn't have killed her, she wouldn't have killed me. Sometimes showing strength is a way to earn trust. I've seen humans do it – to trust the strong ones. But humans can just pretend to be strong, they don't need to be so in reality. But we do."

I heard Katrina hiss. I looked at her in the mirror.

"I know," I told her. "But the other option would be to fight. And we will lose that fight. We won't survive."

"Humans bad," she said.

"Yes, they are. We can't get rid of them. And they will follow Ryn and you into the ocean. There's nowhere to go, just to die. I don't want to die."

"Ryn say some humans good."

"Andrea is my family. I think he is good. But he is good because he knows about me. And, Katrina, you still can kill as many humans as you like. "

Next to me, Andrea coughed as if I had said something wrong.

"But then you'll be the bad one," I added.

Then, to Andrea: "Don't worry. I know you feel that you are outnumbered. But how often have you been in a car with me alone? Every time, you had been outnumbered, because I'm much stronger than you."

He grinned. "Yeah, but will you defend me if she – " he moved his head slightly towards Katrina in the back " – attacks me.

"Why should I side with a human?"

He looked at me. I smiled. He looked at me even more, with a shocked expression.

"I have never seen you smile!"

"Humans smile a lot. Maybe we can learn at least something from you!"

We arrived at Bristol Cove.


	9. Beached

After Andrea and I returned to Italy, I went back in the water to warn the others about what was going to happen. I returned to Grado, our villa in the field near the lagoon. The beach was empty, when I arrived there, and it was night. I let that pain roll over me, and then I had legs. The tail was washed away by the water. I stood up and stepped through the cool sand. It was not the spot where I usually left the sea, where I had some clothes hidden to blend in. I looked around. There was Andreas, waiting for me with a cover and some clothes.

I went into the house with him. My hair was still wet, until now I had always waited until it dried. Maria was till up and came to me.

"Auntie Lele!"

"Hi, Maria! Has your daddy told you about what we are going to do tomorrow?"

"Yeassss! Plaese, please, please tell me! What is it?"

"Oh, you will see! But it's a surprise, and it wouldn't be one if I told you now!"

She pouted. Her mother told her: "It's well past your bedtime!"

"Can Auntie Lele please tell me a story."

"Yes, I can!" I assured her. Her mon smiled at me, she knew that there was no way Maria would go to spleep without the secret or at least a story."

"By the way, what are you planning for tomorrow," she asked me.

But I turned to Maria: "What story di you want to hear?"

"About mermaids," she crowed!

"Ok, let's do that!" and I went to the bedroom with her.

They were accustomed to me going in my room, so I evaded any further questions. Shortly after midnight, Andrea came into my room.

"Ready for tomorrow? Are you really going through?"

"Yes," I told him. He said nothing and left the room.


	10. Happy

The next day, after breakfast, we drove out. Our destination was the Castle Miramare, where there would be tourists. It was directly on the sea, but there was no beach, just a four feet drop into the water.

When we arrived there – I let Andrea drive and was in the back with Maria – we parked the car and we went down. Indeed, some people where wandering around. The castle itself was little and only known because a famous Austrian princess once lived there, but it was really beautiful there. The green hills climbed up behind the white castle, and the water was really clear.

Next to the castle, there was a little stony pier going out in the little bay. That whole area could be overlooked from a railing where people were watching and taking photos and videos from the building and the scenery. I climbed down to the pier. Maria wanted to follow me, but I told her that it was time for the surprise. Her mother took her, looking wearily at Andrea, who also had taken out his good camera.

"Just watch!" I told them.

I ran to the end to the wall, where there was a small platform. There, I started to undress. That should generate some attention on its own, I thought, but I was quickly done and could go on with the most important part. I turned back to Maria, who was watching me with her mouth open, waved at her, and then I jumped into the water as graciously as I could.

I felt the water all around me, the tingling and the burning. I let the change happen while slowly sinking down. When I was ready, I swam up to the surface and looked out.

All the people were looking at me, shouting. I waved at Maria again, her expression was absolutely excited, no trace of fear. Her mum was looking at me, then to Andrea, then to me. Other people were filming. I dived back into the water, let my tail splash through the surface. I didn't come back to the air, but stayed close to the surface, near to the pier.

I swam for several minutes, when I saw a small clam. I dived for it, took it and then swam back to the little platform where my clothes were. Andrea has taken Maria there, since she obviously wanted to be near me. I came half out, just pegging on my arms, because I didn't want to change back.

Maria came close to me. I looked at her quizzically, since I couldn't say anything – I had no air to do so. I showed her the clamshell, but she was not interested.

"Auntie Lele is a mermaid!" she chanted instead and was happy.

I went back into the water, since I needed to breathe, and put on a show especially for Maria. I did somersaults in the water, rolled for and back and then I pushed myself out of the water completely back on the stone next to her. The change would not start as long I wouldn't try to put air in my lungs.

Maria touched my scaly skin on my arms and on my tail, laughing all the time. "It's cold and wet!"

I grimaced at her, but then I took her hand and put it on my cheek. My other hand I put on hers. Then I put my forehead against her.

"That's how mermaids say: You're my best friend," her father explained.

Then I waved her goodbye, pushed myself back in the water and swam out of the bay, back to the other half of my family.


End file.
